Get Paid to Watch Movies

Getting paid to watch movie is like a dream job for most people. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get paid for watching TV shows and movies while eating popcorn!?

There are a few ways you can earn money as a paid movie viewer.

1. Get paid to watch movies in theaters

The most famous way of getting paid for watching movies is watching movies in a theater. These people are often referred to as “movie counters”.

This whole movie counting thing began when some theaters started falsifying their ticket sales report, so they could keep more of the money (rather than sending it to the producer of the movie), thus increasing their own profit.

That’s why movie companies started hiring people who would go into the movie theaters and basically count the number of people coming in to watch a specific movie.

As a movie counter, you will be assigned a 2 -3 days weekend and a specific movie theater. You simply show up at the theater 15 minutes before the movie starts, and start counting every person that walks into the auditorium. The theater usually know that you are there, and they will work with you.

The best part is that you can seat and watch the movie as well. Just make sure you don’t screw up your count.

Of course, producers are not going to directly hire people to do movie counting, they go through independent contractors who take that responsibility.

These independent contractors are usually market research companies who have normally conduct surveys and market research studies to help companies and manufacturers improve their products and services using feedback gathered from their consumers. In this instance, they help producers get every last dime that belongs to them.

In my research, I couldn’t find any company that specifically does this, meaning I couldn’t find any company that hires you just for watching movies. As I said, movie companies usually go through market research/mystery shopping companies.

You sign up with these companies free, then whenever they have one of those jobs, they will send you the assignment and whats expected of you.

In the mean time, you can also opt to receive shopping and dinning assignments where you can get paid to shop or eat and report back your experience.

Here are a few of the most famous and trusted mystery shopping companies where you can register and get paid to eat, shop and watch movies:

2. Get paid to watch Netflix

You can also get paid to watch movies at home. Yes, Netflix does actually pay people for watching movies. Netflix pays dozens or so people, who they call “taggers”, to watch every new movie or TV show added to their database, and then tag them appropriately.

Basically, these taggers watch 5 to 12 movies each week, trying to figure out what category each movie belongs to. And from what I have heard, taggers get paid around $300 a week for watching Netflix movies.

That said, it is not easy to become a tagger and get paid to watch Netflix. Netflix doesn’t put ads out there, and they don’t hire often. You have to be very lucky (read know someone that works for Netflix) to get that job.

3. Get paid to review movies

Another, more profitable way of getting paid for watching movies is becoming a movie critic for magazines and perhaps even TV shows. You know, what the likes of Roger Ebert and Stanley Kaufmann do.

Of course, it would be extremely hard to find a job as a movie critic for TV shows, and you have to be really good. Bot, you it is much easier to review movies for magazines, newspapers and even movie related blogs. You can even work as a freelancer for some of these blogs.

The easiest way to look for such jobs is to contact newspapers, magazines and blogs directly. Simply do a quick search on Google and find a few dozen blogs, magazines and newspapers that publish movie reviews.

Before you contact them, write a review of a newly released movie and attach it with your email. That will make it more likely for them to hire you (assuming you are a good movie critic, of course!)

4. Get paid to watch movie trailers

You can also get paid to watch movie trailers and videos through paid survey sites. These are also market research companies who help movie companies gauge the interest of a given movie, or how good or bad a certain movie trailer is before they put it out there.

Again, these companies are not specific to movies, they also conduct studies about foods, drugs and all kind of products you and I use in our everyday life.

So, you can always participate in those studies (which will be sent to your inbox, or you can login to your account to see if there is any open studies you can participate in) if you want to earn some extra cash. You can learn more about getting paid for taking surveys, here.